


The chamomile rant

by TheMusicalCC



Category: Ghostbusters (Video Game), Ghostbusters - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Missing Scene, One-Shot, sometimes you gotta write stuff that's kinda pointless for FUNSIES
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 22:16:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17333396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheMusicalCC/pseuds/TheMusicalCC
Summary: Turns out maybe getting bumped on the head with enough force to lose consciousness is a bit more serious than it looks like at first.





	The chamomile rant

Honestly, he should have known, what with how she went into that tangent about her chamomile. Peter Venkman is not a _Doctor_ doctor, but he knows enough about the field to be able to tell some things, and he _had_ taken a first aids course on the side, after all. The signs _had_ been there, they’d just been in too much a hurry to see them… that and Janine had looked _fine_. She didn’t sway or seem disoriented or anything like that. She was just acting a bit… off.

Still, when they’re getting ready to leave and the Rookie asks her if she’s alright, and he turns just in time to see Janine lean on the archive drawers and vomit, he blames himself for not even stopping to check if she _was_ fine. She got bumped on the head hard enough that she was out like a light for at least long enough that someone took Alyssa, he should have known-! Before he can even finish the thought inside his own head, though, Ray, Egon and Winston are already going to her, their hurry forgotten.

“ _Goddammit_ ” is all she can say once she’s done, coughing “I need to lie down”

“Kid, get the chair” he calls as he goes to grab her, since she seems dangerously close to falling over. The Rookie obeys and steps back, intimidated as Peter sets Janine back on it and removes her glasses- one of the temples is twisted, either way. Probably from when she hit the floor “Hey, Janine. Janine? Over here, look at me” she does, blinking owlishly. Normal pupils. At least he thinks so “Egon, your pen light” Egon hands it to him and he checks pupil reaction. Normal. OK, so there’s that “Janine, can you tell me your full name?”

“You _know_ my full name” she protests. She’s not talking funny, so that’s good, he guesses “At least you should. You sign my p-paychecks”

“So humor me”

She breathes out. It’s an attempt at laughing, or so it seems. One that doesn't smell very nice.

“When-? Have I _ever_ -?”

“Hey, Rookie doesn’t know your full name” Ray intervenes “You like the Rookie, right? Tell him your name”

Her eyes set on the Rookie, standing awkwardly behind Peter and her expression softens a bit.

“I hadn’t seen you there, hi. You new?” the pause that follows is used by the Ghostbusters to exchange looks “Wait. No- it’s you, Rookie, sorry. You really don’t know my name?” Rookie plays along, shaking his head “Janine. Janine Melnitz. Don’t make me tell you again”

“Good, that’s good” Peter breathes. No, it’s not good. It’s- it’s not as bad as it could be but it’s not _good_. How long _did_ she pass out? He never even thought of asking, none of them did. _Geniuses_ “Do you know where you are?”

“At work”

“I need an address, red”

She blinks at him.

“I’ve always wond- wondered, why’d’you call me that? My hair isn’t really all that red, is it?”

“It used to be. You tinted it” Winston intervened, looking more and more alarmed. She looks at him blankly for a moment.

“I did” she furrows her brow, sinking a bit into the chair “Yeah, I did”

“Focus, Janine, the address”

“Look it up yourself. I’m going to take a nap”

“Are you experiencing irresistible drowsiness?” Egon intervenes, when she doesn’t seem to want to respond, he shakes her shoulder a bit “Janine”

“I’m tired”

“I think that’s a yes” Ray mutters, anxious.

“Riiiight, she can’t stay here alone, guys” Peter turns to Egon for confirmation, which he provides, brow furrowed in concern.

“She sounds like she might be concussed”

“I’m fine, I just want to take a nap” Janine weakly protests.

“You got anyone you can stay with? That friend you were talking to in the phone a minute ago?”

“She’s skipping town. Lucky w-wench” she screws her face for a moment, perhaps wondering why her mouth isn’t working right and then suddenly hisses, holding her head “Oh, _shit-_ shit. _Fuck._ OW!”

“We’re taking her to the ER” Egon tells Ray. It’s not a suggestion.

“Definitely a concussion” Winston nods.

“OK. Kid, Winston, come’ere” Peter motions for them to help her up “Janine, can you walk?” she doesn’t reply and don’t raise her head “OK, help her to the car. We’ll drop her off on the way there- what’s that, Janine, you wanna ride on Egon’s lap?”

Egon glances at him as though unsure if it’s a joke or not. Janine keeps silent but shows him her middle finger. Rookie clears his throat to avoid laughing.

“Alright, enough of that, let’s go” Winston calls, coaxing her towards Ecto-1 “Just let us know if you wanna throw up again and aim at Peter if you can”

* * *

The traffic is hellish thanks to the panic sweeping across New York and Ray runs out of topics to keep Janine from falling asleep pretty soon, so Peter resorts to sleepover games.

“Dr. Venkman. Look. I can’t exactly do dares right now unless they involve being dizzy” Janine groans by the time the third round rolls by, her head laid on Egon’s shoulder and covered in sweat “So let’s just assume all of my turns are truth, OK?”

“Fine, then. Do you or do you not stare at Wisnton’s ass when he walks by?”

“And you don’t?” is her response. Egon pushes his lower lip out and nods a little as thought to say ‘ _Fair_ ’ “How come no one’s asking _you_ for truth or dare?”

“I’m the judge”

“Can I take a nap now? Just a quick one, my head is killing me”

“Not yet, Janine” Peter searches his brain for something, anything that might keep her talking “What was that chamomile story you were telling us a while ago?”

“Chamomile?” she squints at him “Wait- this morning?” she pauses “...did I tell you guys about that?”

“Yeah, yeah, and something about your shoe?”

“The heel of my pump”

“Your favorite pair” Ray pipes in helpfully.

“Yeah…” she scrunches her face for a moment, and then blinks. Is her vision acting up? “...did I really tell you guys about it?”

“Yeah, just a while ago”

“Damn. Why’d I do that?”

“Because you got hit on the head and were disoriented, no biggie” Winston says.

“I must have sounded like an idiot”

“I barely noticed the difference” Peter shrugs. She glares at him.

“Rookie, hit him for me”

“Kid, don’t even think about it”

The Rookie looks at both of them alternatively and chooses to immerse himself in Tobin’s and pretend he’s not there instead. Wise decision, Peter admits to himself. Still, Janine’s words remain with him. _I must have sounded like an idiot_. She really did. And yet none of them thought there was something odd with that. Sometimes they really were shit to her.

“You really don’t remember?” Ray asks, anxiety obvious in his tone.

“It’s this headache” she hisses “I can’t even _think_ ”

Ray exchanges a look with Winston on the front seat.

“Janine, I know you asked us not to, but I’m gonna turn the siren on”

“Oh, _shit_ ” she mutters, running a hand down her face, before covering her ears “OK. Do it”

The siren still has her gritting her teeth, sweat-drops rolling down her face, but the results aren’t to be argued with, they reach the hospital in record time. Peter all but leaps out of the car, as does the Rookie, the minute they’re there, and Egon helps her off the car. She’s still grimacing. ER staff is going to them already and Peter briefs them on the situation as fast as he can. Before he can leave, Janine grabs him by the belt.

“What?”

“Give the Pecker hell for me”

He smiles a bit. _That’s out girl._

“Consider it done”

* * *

 The fruit basket arrives to the firehouse -still under reconstruction after the last Containment Unit mishap- a couple of days later and Peter is already wolfing down a banana by the time Winston reads the card and lets him know it’s for Janine.

“What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her” he says as he tosses the peel into a nearby garbage bin “Who’s the stud, by the way? And what was wrong with roses?”

“The Mayor” Winston shows him the card. The Rookie, still stuck with sweep-and-mop duty, looks over his shoulder to see it “It’s an apology basket. I think he may remember hitting her on the head to get to Alyssa, after all”

“Huh, that’s decent of him” Peter nods and the Rookie follows suit, shrugging a bit as if to say ‘ _I guess’ “_ For a politician, I mean”

“Yeah, he still sent it to her workplace instead of her home”

“What’s the damage? She practically lives here” Peter pauses “...and I just made myself feel bad”

“So I’m not the only one?” Ray says as he climbs out of the charred cave the basement now is, followed by Egon “I can’t stop thinking that we were _this close_ to leaving her alone before noticing. If we hadn’t been checking the damages… she would have been all alone here when the nausea kicked in and the headache got worse. I don’t thinks he could have driven herself to the hospital”

“We _were_ here, though” Winston says “Someone up there must like her a lot. That’s the second Containment Unit she’s survived and what little damage she got, got treated immediately”

“To be fair, this explosion wasn’t half as bad as the last one” Egon pointed out.

“Still couldn’t have been pretty to be sitting on top of”

“Hm”

They look at the fruit basket and then at each other.

“Do you figure we can put a flower arrangement in the reparation expenses somehow?” Peter mutters, scratching his chin.

* * *

The dozen roses shows up at Janine’s house sometime over the fourth day of her mandatory week off and she’s half-expecting them to be from her mom. Five signatures on the card, though, say otherwise. What gets her laughing so hard that the headache returns for a bit, though, is the dedicatory. _Sorry for not realizing your chamomile rant was a cry for help_. She can’t tell if that was Egon and his inability to be anything less than literal or Peter being Peter. It lifts her mood considerably all the same.

When she does get back to work, she also finds a small box full with different tea flavors in one of her drawers. The note, with a handwriting that she could swear it’s the Rookie’s, reads: _In case they’re out of chamomile again_. She hums amusedly at it, wondering if this is one of those jokes that are just going to stick, like whatever Egon did to the mood-slime for an experiment and whatever the story with Peter and gophers was. Time will tell, it seems, and now that the world is safe - _again_ , suck it Shandor- she'll have time to find out. She plugs in the phone, places her headphones on and waits for the first ring of the day.

“Hello, Ghostbusters...”

**Author's Note:**

> Yyyyeah, I have no excuse for this one except it will always bother me that in the game Janine pretty much told them she got hit on the head and lost consciousness and no one even checked her for a concussion even though she was also apparently out of it enough to not understand what the guys were asking when they told her to 'Tell them what happened from the beginning'. I'm that kind of person.


End file.
